Europe's CO2 observers meet in Prague – with IOW among them.
The European ICOS research infrastructure network wants to generate more knowledge about the exchange of greenhouse gases in order to help prevent a future “hothouse Earth”. On September 11 – 14, ICOS scientists will meet in Prague to discuss their data. The marine chemist Gregor Rehder from Warnemünde is among them.
Chinese-German expedition in the South China Sea investigates impact of megacities on coastal seas
On September 1, 2018, a ship-based research cruise starts from Guangzhou down the Pearl River to the coastal areas of the South China Sea. As part of the joint German-Chinese project MEGAPOL (short for "Megacity's fingerprint in Chinese marginal seas: Investigation of pollutant fingerprints and dispersal"), which is coordinated by the IOW, the 30-day cruise is investigating environmental impacts caused by conurbations with up to 100 million inhabitants on adjacent sea areas.
2nd International Baltic Earth Conference in Denmark: “The Baltic Sea Region in Transition”
Today, Markus Meier, head of IOW's department of Physical Oceanography, opens the 2nd Baltic Earth Conference in Helsingør, Denmark. There, about 130 Earth system scientists from 14 countries and many different scientific disciplines meet to discuss past, current and future environmental transitions, which the Baltic Sea region will face.
Into the heart of the blue-green algae bloom: IOW sailing expedition “BloomSail” is launched
On May 19, 2018, Jens Müller from the IOW starts his four-month sailing expedition BloomSail. The aim is a precise description of cyanobacteria mass development in the central Baltic Sea by means of CO2 measurements and other parameters, which play a decisive role in the formation and further course of these so-called blue-green algae blooms. The use of an 8-metre yacht for the first time allows the observation of acute bloom events in high temporal and spatial resolution during an entire blue-green algae peak season. The blooms are to be investigated not only – as is usually the case – in surface water but also in deeper water layers.
Pioneer of ocean thermodynamics: IOW researcher Rainer Feistel receives Fridtjof Nansen Medal
On April 9, 2018, Rainer Feistel, physicist at IOW until 2014, received the Fridtjof Nansen Medal 2018 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) at its general assembly in Vienna. The EGU, with about 12,500 members Europe's leading association for geoscientists, honoured Feistel's ground-breaking work in the field of ocean thermodynamics. Particularly by defining the thermodynamic properties of seawater by means of a Gibbs function he created for the first time stringent thermodynamic foundations in oceanography, from which other scientific disciplines such as climate research and engineering also benefited significantly.
Lavish blue-green algae: Surprising supply of amino acids for zooplankton
In the international journal Limnology and Oceanography, marine biologist Natalie Loick-Wilde from Rostock reports about a study in the central Baltic Sea in which she and her colleagues from IOW and the US-American Georgia Institute of Technology succeeded in proving that blue-green algae produce an excess of amino acids at a late stage of their bloom. In a typically nutrient-poor season, this leads to a surprising food supply for marine microorganisms and thus for the entire food web.
Learning from our pollution history: a plea for a proactive approach to tackle microplastics
In a viewpoint paper recently published in the scientific journal “Environmental Science and Technology”, two researchers from IOW argue on why it is reasonable to work towards legislative steps, even though the toxicity potential that microplastics may have on nature environment is still not yet conclusively determined.
New IOW study: Do microplastics harbour additional risks by colonization with harmful bacteria?
The alarming omnipresence of microplastics in rivers, lakes, and oceans increasingly gains the critical focus of research. So far, however, there has been no reliable knowledge as to whether microplastic particles in aquatic ecosystems promote the development of special bacterial communities or even the spread of pathogens. A recent study within the project MikrOMIK* under the lead of IOW has now for the first time systematically investigated whether bacterial biofilms on microplastic particles differ from those on natural materials and how various environmental factors influence the community composition.
Environmental history told by sludge: Global warming lets the dead zones in the Black Sea grow
Geoscientists IOW, the universities of Oldenburg and Hannover as well as Rutgers University (USA) succeeded now in reconstructing the depositional environment of the last interglacial (Eemian, 128,000 years ago) in the Black Sea with unprecedented details. This enabled for the first time a direct comparison between the current oxygen-depleted conditions in the deep water with those during the Eemian when the water temperatures in summer were 3° higher. It shows that the dead zones of the Black Sea will most probably expand by a future global warming, leading to a significant shrinking of the productive zone in the surface water.
How do megacities impact coastal seas? Searching for evidence in Chinese marginal seas
Two research projects, which join several German and Chinese partner institutions, were launched into action with a kick-off meeting in Guangzhou, China, from December 4 to 8, 2017. They are supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a total of 1.25 Mio. Euros and aim at recognising the fingerprint of megacities in the marine sediments of Chinese marginal seas. On the German side, both projects are coordinated by IOW.